1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for aligning fish by transferring fish which are presented for conveying with their longitudinal axis in an approximately vertical orientation and their tail downwards into a horizontally aligned position with reference to their head-tail attitude including at least one pair of conveyor belts guided substantially parallel to one another, engaging the flanks of the fish and conveying these in a conveying direction extending substantially transverse to their longitudinal axis.
2. Description of Prior Art
When mechanically processing fish it has been found that, particularly with longitudinally orientated working steps, as for example when filleting, handling the fish in their swimming attitude, that is to say, in the head-tail attitude, results in the most favourable conditions for carryout out such working steps, whereas with transversely orientated working steps, as for example when decapitating, a vertical alignment, that is to say, head upwards and tail downwards, has shown itself to be advantageous. Coupling these working steps therefore requires a device with whose help the fish can be transferred from their vertical into their horizontal orientation. A typical decapitating device which processes fish in a vertical attitude is disclosed in German Pat. No. 11 77 783 in which the fish are conveyed by a pair of horizontally guided conveyor belts engaging the flanks of the head and of the rump whilst hanging and being supported at the lower edges of the gill flaps or the projection of the breast fins. After the decapitation the parts of the fish are cut free in such a way that the bodies or rumps fall out of the apparatus under the action of gravity. In this manner they can be fed to an oblique of inclined conveyor arranged below the decapitating device which lifts them up to the loading level of the subsequent processing machine and thus compensates for the loss of height which has occurred.
Furthermore, German Pat. No. 12 92 819 discloses a decapitating apparatus delivering the fish longitudinally orientated in which each fish is transported to the decapitating apparatus in an inclined disposition with its head downwards by means of three pairs of conveyor belts engaging it on its flanks. After the decapitation the fish rump is transported further merely by the central pair of conveyor belts and whilst being conveyed is rotated into a longitudinal position in which its decapitation surface is directed forwardly. By means of this apparatus fish of small to medium size can be further transported aligned with regard to their head-tail attitude, and additionally an alignment may be achieved with regard to their belly-back attitude if the fish are fed uniformly with reference to the position of their back or belly also. The processing of larger fish is, however, not possible with such an apparatus. In addition it is not ideal from the ergonomic point of view.